Comparative Cultural History from the Perspective of East Asian Mingu and Material Culture

Joint Research Projects

The origins of many of Japan’s traditional mingu can be traced directly or indirectly to Chinese influence, if not to introduction from China. This project will compare Japanese mingu with those of China and Korea from the perspectives of folklore studies, archeology, cultural anthropology, and migration studies, and will seek to determine synchronically what they have in common and how they differ.

As subjects of study, we envisage two areas: mingu associated with life (artifacts related to everyday living), and mingu associated with death (artifacts related to burial and grave systems, consoling the spirits of the dead, etc.). The research will center on the prewar Attic Museum collection; we will undertake a comparative study between China/Korea and Japan from a material culture perspective, focusing on changes that have occurred since the collection was made.

Name

Specialty

Affiliation

PL

SUNAMI Soichiro

Folklore

Gangoji institute for research of cultural property

DL

OGUMA Makoto

Folklore

Kanagawa University

PM

CAI Wen Gao

Folklore

Kokugakuin University

PM

HE Bin

Folklore

Tokyo Metropolitan University

PM

KUTSUKI Ryo

Study of Material Culture
Historic archaeology

Chiba University of Commerce

PM

MAKIBAYASHI Keisuke

Archeology

Research Center of Ancient East Asian Iron Culture

PM

NAKAO Norihito

The study of Chinese Mingu

Tenri University Sankokan Museum

PM

OTA Shinpei

Social and cultural anthropology

National Museum of Ethnology

PM

SERIZAWA Satohiro

Cultural anthropology

Nara University

PM

SHIGA Ichiko

Cultural anthropology

Ibaraki Christian University

PM

SUZUKI Fumiko

Cultural anthropology

Bukkyo University

PL

-Project leader

DL

-Deputy project leader

PM

-Project member

[Second Term] Joint research projects(regular projects)
1. Research on the history of maritime areas and people